Todd Bowles on Sam Darnold: We’ll keep giving him reps in practice, see where he’s at

Posted by Josh Alper on December 3, 2018, 4:10 PM EDT

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The Jets season hit another low point on Sunday when they blew a 16-0 lead in a 26-22 loss and it’s hard to see the hope for too many highs the rest of the way that don’t involve some positive signs from rookie quarterback Sam Darnold before the year is out.

Darnold will need to play in order to show any of those signs and he’s missed the last four games with a foot injury. He returned to practice last week and head coach Todd Bowles said on Monday that Darnold wasn’t ready to play off that limited time on the field. This week could be a different story, though.

“He had a great number of reps, he was prepared, but you’re not going to come three days as a rookie and be fresh off your reads and not have any rust to go in a ball game and play on Sunday after you’ve been out for two weeks,” Bowles said at his press conference. “You need some time to get your timing back and everything else. So, we’ll continue to give him reps and when I think he’s ready, he’ll play.”

Bowles made another reference to Darnold’s lack of practice time later in the press conference, which suggests the rookie will have a better chance of getting the nod as long as there aren’t any medical setbacks.